Bad Squiddo Special

So I was lucky enough to have a small parcel sent to me by Bad Squiddo games of master casts of just two of their new upcoming WW2 Soviets. Squiddo already have an excellent range available here, the new additions are in winter kit. 

For those not aware of the company, Bad Squiddo do not do gimicky female versions of historical uniforms, these are researched, genuine historical looks. 

As always, the models were well cast with no flash and took very little prep work before I painted. I have just treated myself to some brand new brushes from Black Hat miniatures so I had a dream painting these. All done with GW and Coat D'arms paints. The khaki colour was my own mix of GW death guard green and Zandra dust. Coat D'arms dark brown super shader did all the magic afterwards. (including turning what started out a redhead into a blonde.)

I wanted to do something different than my normal basing, so in front of the models you can see the test base that worked so well I had to put it in the shot. I used Vallejo Thick Mud acrylic, a pure white drybrush on top, then some light flocking followed by more white drybrushing. Hopefully that gives that frosty ground look.

The Kickstarter goes live this Wednesday and only runs for a week so look up Bad Squiddo on your usual Social Media for the links on Wednesday to get hold of these Soviets.

And in between painting these two (at what I might add a super quick pace for me.) you have to have something to do while the inks and glues dry. So I thought I should finish this mounted Freyja that has been sat half done on the painting tray since Christmas. 

I have recently learnt that this style of having a solid green trim on bases is a 90's style and not the done thing anymore. I couldn't for the life of me think of what people were doing now, so I had to actually look through instagram at some models to see what people are doing. Turns out, leave it black or paint it dark brown now is the done thing. It may be garish to some, but I think I'm going to keep with the green.

Frost Fang Cavalry

Well, hello there. How you been? Yep, I'm still painting fantasy, although I have an excuse. I actually need to order paints so some of my historical models are still on hold due to lack of the right colours. 

 So, the pastel painted fantasy that is my Barbarian Dragon Rampant Army gets another unit. One of the joys of non miniature agnostic rules is you can jump around companies and just pick and choose stuff that you like the look of. So from Mantic games I ordered these amazing Frost Fang Cavalry. My Barbarian army have a Viking/Northern tribe fur wearing feel to them, so they fit in very nicely.

They are full resin, multi part kits. The beasts have two loose legs on one side and the riders have a loose head and both arms. The resin needed a good soapy bath as always. (I must recommend you must do this with any resin model kit otherwise you will find the primer layer won't adhere well at all) One model had suffered a missing foot as well, possibly an air bubble in the mould. A bit of green stuff however and my amateur sculpting skills and you couldn't tell which one.

 

 (I did have to resculpt it a couple of times though as I kept trying to hold the model by the foot when painting it before the green stuff had hardened, rookie mistake!)

The beasts were super fun and easy to paint, I only used washes on the riders, just relying on a couple of layers of dry brushing first and the painting in the details on the face and claws for the beasts. There is something so satisfying about drybrushing layers of paint on fur on a model. The sculpter has basically done all the hard work for you and with some careful selection of shades of paint you can get an awesome looking model. The riders had a choice of two different heads and two sets of arms in the kit, so to make my third guy not look the same as another (sadly there was nothing much I could do about the beasts all being in the same pose) from my bits box I grabbed a bow and arrow arm set left over from the Frostgrave plastic box set. I loved the idea of a barbarian letting loose an arrow while charging into the enemy on his roaring mount. In hindsight I realise he doesn't have a quiver now, but maybe I will find a way to add one to the saddle at some point.

 

So, as you can see, by keeping to a similar pallete and painting style models from different companies can appear as if they are from the same army. Why be beholden to one company's models? It's like a super expensive pick and mix that I can guarantee will make you feel very ill if you eat it.

Oh and finally, please do admire the background painting in my photo's. It was done by my youngest and with his permission I decided it would make an excellent background to my photo's. He came home from school clutching the A3 paper to show off his painting skills and I immediately decided it was far too good for the usual magnetic mounting to the fridge. It would be put to far better use here.

Welcome to Marwencol

There comes a point in a comedy actor's career when they decide they want to do some serious acting. You may or may not be a fan of Steve Carell, you may remember such awesome performance as Brick in Anchorman, or Michael Scott in the American The Office. Well, recently I was intrigued by the trailer of a film call Welcome to Marwen. A true story of a victim of a brutal attack who finds therapy in photographing 1\6 scale depictions of a fictional town in Belgium during WW2. After watching the film I decided to investigate further and purchased the above book by the inspiration of the film, Mark Hogancamp. Mark chose such a large scale during the early days of his recovery for mainly practical reasons. His injuries meant he suffered from shaking hands and couldn't initially cope with the smaller scales that regular readers of this blog would expect.

Mark's excellent photographer's eye coupled with his attention to detail makes a book of remarkable scenes. Uniforms are left out in muddy puddles for days to obtain that lived in look. What appears to be a quirky affectation in the movie of his life of Mark constantly pulling along a jeep filled with dolls and soldiers as he goes about the town makes complete sense when explained. He is creating genuine wear on the tyres of the vehicle.

Mark's 2004 prize winning photograph - Rescuing the Major

The book covers Marks story, his recovery from the attack and the trial of the perpetrators. It then goes into detail of how Mark made Marwencol and the characters that populate the town. Mark has his own alter ego "Hogie" as well as a population of strong female characters populating the town, some named after friends in his life. When Hogie first arrives he is the one that needs rescuing, like Mark, the town has been his redemption.

Mark and Hogie

The last part of the book is made up of Mark's picture stories. Almost comic strip type stories, they show the efforts of hours of painstaking work.

The ladies of Marwencol mete out their own brand of justice

Mark has since begun working in smaller scale again and now like the rest of us has his own stack of projects he is working on. I recently had the unique opportunity via the wonders of Facebook live of joining a Q&A with Mark and asking him about his work through his representatives, One Mile Gallery. Mark has recently discovered acrylic paints (he has always used enamels until now.) and he himself has admitted he is always learning new techniques, mostly from Youtube!

 

Mark is an inspiration to me that crafting and modelling is such a good tool for mental health and although I am no expert at all I am sure I can confidently say he is evidence that it's not just playing with toy soldiers.

 

If you would like to help out towards Mark's crafting costs you can donate to his fund here.

 

Mark will be doing another Q&A via Facebook and One Mile Gallery later on this month.